<p>Sorry im a bit inexperienced in this, is it because college classes are way harder ?</p>
<p>I don’t think you can get over a 4.0 in college</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are no increases for “honors” or “AP” courses. Everything is unweighted.</p></li>
<li><p>The competition is tougher and the expectations are higher.</p></li>
<li><p>Many universities do not use + or -. You either get an “A” or a “B” and if you get one of each there is your 3.5 GPA</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That being said, there are students who maintain a 4.0 in college.</p>
<p>Most people don’t achieve a 4.0 in college. That said, it IS possible.</p>
<p>If you want to look at it in a whole, a 3.3-3.7 is the target goal for most students.</p>
<p>Yes, the courses are way harder and WAY EASIER to not do any homework, study, or even go to class. </p>
<p>College is a whole new world compared to high school.</p>
<p>Because high school is a lot easier?</p>
<p>as said above every course is the same, regarding to difficulty so GPA won’t be inflated.</p>
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<p>Which is precisely why I didn’t do the honors program at my school. I’m already in a BS/MD program so, for me, that is enough. Some of my friends in the honors program are struggling because the classes are harder, but weighted the same with just about every other class out there. I always feel like screaming “WAS IT WORTH IT?” in their ears because while they may feel “satisfied” that they are “challenging” themselves, the payoff of a lower GPA clearly isn’t worth it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>An A- is a 3.7, which makes a 4.0 extremely difficult.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of classes are based on your midterm(s), final, and sometimes essays, all of which will be harder than high school tests/essays. There’s no homework/participation to cushion your grade when you do poorly on a test.</p></li>
<li><p>You have more distractions and freedom in college. It’s easy to go partying on a Friday night when that essay isn’t due until Monday; it’s easy not to do the homework when it’s recommended but not required; it’s easy to skip class when attendance isn’t mandatory.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>High school is easier and I’m not sure why a 4.0 would be ‘good’ in HS. Then again my high school didn’t have weighted GPAs, and it was a pretty tough school anyway.</p>
<p>College classes are far more difficult. Also forced curves are the devil’s playthings.</p>
<p>What TheYankInLondon said. Curves. Out of all the CSE students in the intro classes (around 600 students, same prof, different lectures), only 10 people got 4.0’s when I took the course.</p>
<p>Fewer people get A’s in college.</p>
<p>Young Jedi,</p>
<p>Have you ever seen this?:</p>
<p>[The</a> Bell Curve.](<a href=“http://www.optionetics.com/images/articles/lund0720011.gif]The”>http://www.optionetics.com/images/articles/lund0720011.gif)</p>
![http://www.optionetics.com/images/articles/lund0720011.gif]The](http://www.optionetics.com/images/articles/lund0720011.gif%5DThe){kind=link}
<p>Yes, it does exist. </p>
<p>And especially so in impacted major courses. You should sample a couple of university courses during one of your summers.</p>
<p>What’s a bell curve used for tho?</p>
<p>Grade distribution. In theory, most students should do just meh, a “C”. Some more will do better, a “B” and some will do worse, a “D”. A few will do excellently, an “A”, and a few will do very poorly, an “F”.</p>
<p>If the aforementioned theory does not work, the bell curve will force such a grade distribution, even if all the students in the class initially finish with A’s. </p>
<p>The forced grade distribution in turn will force competition between students in the classroom. . .and the competition is where all the deliberate sabotage-stories you hear are born.</p>
<p>they should just use percentiles IMO</p>
<p>
Totally not true at my university. My only class that doesn’t take attendance has 200 people in it and there are iclicker points every class that combined with homework count for 20-25% of your grade depending on if you exempt your final exam. So basically, if you don’t go to class, your grade gets docked anyways.</p>
<p>Even my 300 level French course takes attendance. 15% of the grade. My Theatre Classes both took attendance. My U101 Class took attendance.</p>
<p>That’s the case with almost every class at my school as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>For me, I haven’t made straight A’s since the 6th grade and this semester I made A’s in six of my classes, so I have a 4.0. I think it’s a lot easier. But I also think my high school was ridiculously tough. Only three people in my senior class had straight A’s.</p>
<p>I’ve only had at most one class each semester that gave points for attendance. I guess it just varies.</p>